Blue Ribbon &gt; Rustic Kitchen

Chandler’s Restaurant and Lounge is serving up a menu of Julia Child favorites through tonight at the Hilton Carlsbad Oceanfront Resort & Spa. The event marks the late, beloved chef’s 101st birthday, WHICH IS TODAY.

Beached on a small block with custard-colored storefronts in Hillcrest, you’ll find Blue Ribbon Rustic Kitchen.

There’s from-scratch pastas like a springy-creamy agnolotti with peas and prosciutto. Don’t pout when you realize the “linguine” in a scant bowl of clams is just ribbony-puny bits of calamari.

And its culinary posture is at once upmarket: grass-fed rib eye, pancetta and capers in your fried Brussels sprouts. But still you can treat Blue Ribbon like a bar with snacks: zucchini fries, Caprese salad.

They infuse their own vodkas with fruit and herbs and sell $4 Pabst Blue Ribbon here. The cocktail specialties — like a strawberry basil spritzer — keep it effervescent. That’s a nice way of saying it took three cocktails and a pint of Sculpin IPA (or was it Lost Abbey?) to get beyond a buzz.

Blue Ribbon, which opened its doors in late June, is from haute-pizza guy Wade Hageman and his wife, Kristi, owners of Blue Ribbon Artisan Pizzeria and The Craftsman New American Tavern, both popular in Encinitas. Technically, Blue Ribbon is in a highly walkable neighborhood, Hillcrest. The restaurant is really in that one removed Hillcrest region with high turnover for food makers. (The previous occupant was Bayu’s, an Ethiopian eatery that looked like a church basement dining room.)

Blue Ribbon is not at all self-conscious about its tucked-away location.

The windows open onto planters at eye-level with passers-by. Inside, banquettes and booths are as tall as the concrete-topped bar. And indie-dance rock plays to a multi-ethnic, multi-gen crowd.

All this to say that the Hagemans made a real investment in the aesthetic — and saved on revolutionizing their menu.

Many plates are reruns or spinoffs from New American Tavern (not all: there’s no lamb dish in Hillcrest). Both restaurants rely on chef Marlaw Seraspi for the food stuff, which ranges from albacore crudo, sweet corn soup and free-range chicken to cheese plates and butterscotch pudding. There’s merlot-braised short rib at New American Tavern — it’s the protein that owner-chef Hageman made a name with at the old Blanca. That short rib gets tucked into ravioli at the pasta-concept Blue Ribbon.

You could say Blue Ribbon Rustic Kitchen is Craftsman New American Tavern, made carb-ier.